THROWBACK THURSDAY: Paula Abdul And Janet Jackson Rehearsing (1986)

During her Control era, Janet Jackson was Paula Abdul’s choreography apprentice. Here’s some footage of them rehearsing in 1986.

By the mid-80s, Janet Jackson had already released two albums, both met with little to no interest from the critics. It wasn’t until 1986 that her career started to take shape thanks to some savvy business acumen (ie. severing ties with her father) and production from Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. Control became a global smash and one of the defining albums of not only the 80s but what we now call contemporary R&B. This new fusion of funk, R&B, disco and hip hop required fancy footwork to complement it and that’s where singer-songwriter and choreographer Paula Abdul came in. This footage shows Abdul and Jackson practising a routine for When I Think Of You with some other dancers. The section in this video can be seen in the final video towards the end.